This and all other headers in this OT are courtesy of pariah164!
Developer: Sukeban Games
Publisher: Ysbryd Games
Genre: Visual Novel/Adventure
Release Date: June 21, 2016
Platforms: PC/Linux/Mac, Vita (TBD), iOS (TBD)
Price: 14.99 USD (Steam | itch.io)
In this world, corporations reign supreme, all human life is infected with nanomachines designed to oppress them, and the terrifying White Knights ensure that everyone obeys the laws.
But, this is not about those people.
You are a bartender at VA-11 HALL-A, affectionately nicknamed "Valhalla." Although it is just a small bar downtown, it attracts the most fascinating people this side of dystopia. Keep your clients lubricated and you will be made privy to the most interesting stories.
Staff:
Jill
The protagonist and our eyes and ears to Valhalla. Can be a bit of a grump, but cool-headed and sharp-witted.
Dana
Your boss and your best friend. A bit eccentric, with a strange past you only catch glimpses of in her many anecdotes, but reliable all the same.
Gillian
Your partner behind the counter and senior at work. An affable kind of person, though the respect he actually gets from his clients and his fellow staff is in question.
Patrons:
Dorothy
An android sex worker built to very specific tastes and one of the bar's most persistent regulars. Very open about herself (to the discomfort of others), and likes sweeter drinks.
Anna Graem
A perfectly normal young woman, though somewhat attracted to grimmer conversations.
Alma
A professional hacker with her fair share of romantic troubles. Proud of what she does with the work stories to match. Enjoys alcohol.
Deal
An android working under the Seifer Toy Company, a corporation employed almost exclusively by cybernetically enhanced dogs. Part time beleaguered office secretary, but full time dog lover.
Betty
A veterinarian working for the Seifer Toy Company, attending to its' employees. Intelligent and serious, and very opinionated on the topic of unnecessary cybernetic enhancement, but a fun drunk.
Streaming-chan
Wherever she goes, a camera and an endless feed of scrolling text follows. Streaming-chan broadcasts every single moment of her life to the world at large, shilling subscriptions and doing whatever she can to manipulate her viewership.
And many others!
Work:
VA-11 HALL-A is, principally, a game about bartending. Though it's a visual novel, dialogue choices aren't represented through menus of listed options, but rather what your client is asking for and how cheeky you might feel when serving them. Clients order drinks and you fulfill them by dragging and dropping the current proportions of ingredients into your mixer. Right or wrong answers don't exactly exist, however, and you might take your conversations with your clients in different directions and your relationships with them to different conclusions serving your drinks with a little more alcohol than they asked for, or a little less, or even by surprising them with something else entirely.
Home:
Before the day starts and just after it ends, you can spend your free time catching up on current events, shop around to customize the look of Jill's apartment, and do some drinking of your own.
Screenshots:
Trailers:
Story Trailer
Final Trailer
Music:
Bandcamp
Q. There was a Vita version confirmed, right?
A. Right. Handled by Wolfgames, and expected to release sometime later this year (if all goes well).
Q. How many clients are in the game?
A. A little more than 20.
Q. It says it's a VN. Is this a dating sim or something?
A. Well, you're a bartender, not a bachelorette. You'll form relationships with your clients, and they'll grow and change depending on how you serve them. But there's not much romance (at least as far as Jill's concerned) and no story-redirecting 'routes' for specific characters like many other VNs have.
Q. Best girl?
A. Alma, duh.
Q. Who is Alice_Rabbit?
A. No one really knows. Only that they're a hacker of incomparable skill and influence in the criminal underworld. Some speculate that they could be many hackers under one persona, an AI inhabiting the net, or eve5/v)a/"T?-gVH %